Do you love Howl’s Moving Castle but wish you had a grown up, dark academia, cottagecore, witchy version of them as they solve a murder mystery? Yes? Then go and pick up Modern Divination immediately 🧙🏼‍♀️

This is a slow burn of a book in multiple ways - the romance, the magic system, the plot…all of which come together beautifully! But be prepared to invest in some slow pacing and many unanswered questions until about the halfway mark. This is very much a character driven book, but it became the perfect read for a snowy weekend.

Aurelia Schwartz is our messy American witch studying at Cambridge, determined to hide her magical abilities and emerge a star academic in her medievalist program. Theodore Ingram, her privileged, arrogant rival has always inspired the worst from her and they’ve known nothing but cruelty from each other. However, when a fellow witch is murdered, Aurelia finds herself with no one else to turn to but the person she hates the most.

This book is sumptuous, with prose that refuses to be skimmed over and will sink into your bones. It’s beautiful, moody, and even inspired me to forgo coffee (gasp!) and drink tea instead. That’s how you know there must be magic in these pages ✨